Short Stories and The Unbearable Bassington

by Saki

Brilliantly witty, frequently cruel and chilling, Saki's stories imaginatively portray encounters between the wild and the domestic. This selection of Saki's fiction combines a careful choice of his best short stories and his tragi-comic novella, The Unbearable Bassington. Offering an introduction and full notes, this is the only critical edition of Saki's work available.

342 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 1994

About the author

British writer Hector Hugh Munro under pen name Saki published his witty and sometimes bitter short stories in collections, such as The Chronicles of Clovis (1911).

His sometimes macabre satirized Edwardian society and culture. People consider him a master and often compare him to William Sydney Porter and Dorothy Rothschild Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window," perhaps his most famous, closes with the line, "Romance at short notice was her specialty," which thus entered the lexicon. Newspapers first and then several volumes published him as the custom of the time.

His works include
* a full-length play, The Watched Pot , in collaboration with Charles Maude;
* two one-act plays;
* a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire , the only book under his own name;
* a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington ;
* the episodic The Westminster Alice , a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland ;
* and When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns , an early alternate history.

Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Joseph Rudyard Kipling, influenced Munro, who in turn influenced A. A. Milne, and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I own this collection and it is a five star book I have reviewed all the stories and The Unbearable Bassington under their individual Goodreads listing. Of course this collection is worth reading or buying. Almost everything by Saki is brilliant and worth reading.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, I made time to get all the way through thus collection, including the only novella I am aware of by the thrice-great Saki. Every word is perfectly placed. Every point he makes is like a rug yanked from under me, an iridescent bubble popped between my ears or an icepick in my heart. It just depends on the story. Just read this one.

[David Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times scathingly brilliant, but too uneven to give it the 5 stars it probably deserves.

[Dina Rahajaharison · Rating 4 out of 5]

'We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other married couples they sometimes live apart.'

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t read the novella, just the short stories. I enjoyed them, but collectively they are very similar. Entertaining, but the same notes were hit.